Thursday, December 09, 2010

A game with a very impressive pace had a low number of penalties again, and the team that had 47 penalties against them in the first 5 games has now played 7 more with just 35 penalties called. Is it just regression to the mean or is it a newly enforced discipline? Who knows. But the Cowboys are no longer being called at such a ridiculous rate.

And their standing in the league continues to fall with great rapidity. Once at the top of the lead, Dallas has fallen well off the pace and now rank 8th in penalties and 12th in penalty yardage. And these are stats where you don't mind falling out of the league leaders.

Totals: 6 penalties, with 5 accepted for 35 yards. The offense had 3 penalties, the defense 1, and special teams had 2 as well, so it was spread out fairly. Again, another week where the Cowboys had a rather normal amount of flags, although the Colts had even fewer. Of course, the Colts had a poorly timed "leverage" penalty that may have decided the game.

Worst Offender: I believe Doug Free takes the award this week as he had Dwight Freeney challenging him all afternoon.

Here are your season totals - Keep in mind, my totals include declined and offsetting penalties. For football reasons, they matter way more than just accepted penalties.

We have a new team leader in penalties as Doug Free takes over the top spot with 9 penalties over all. Also, his 2nd and 3rd holding penalites of the year put him in a tie for the team lead in that category as well.

Giving that "12 men on the field" penalty to the team seems like a cop-out, but the reality is that there was so much team chaos while the Colts tried to quick snap the play, that it is probably appropriate. Although the last guy off did look like Victor Butler to me - but since the official statistics do not indicate a specific name, we will just roll with it as a team penalty.

When is a 10 yard penalty not a 10 yard penalty? When Sam Hurd's hold at the 42 yard line nullifies a 85 yard kick return by Dez Bryant. It says 10 on the stat sheet, but, wow, that one hurt.

Based on many requests, I have constructed yet another chart below that will help you put some of these numbers into proper context. Below is the week by week penalties that were accepted for the Cowboys and their opponents in each game. This way, you can see how Wade did vs Garrett or how the Cowboys did against their opponents in a scenario that would account for different tones by different officiating crews throughout the season. Enjoy:

Bob Sturm is host of BaD Radio on The Ticket 1310 AM Mondays through Fridays at 12-3 p.m. He also hosts The Ticket's Cowboys pregame show. Follow Bob on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bobanddan Bob offers his exclusive analysis after games on SportsDayDFW.com